Home Health & Hospice Week

HHAs face uneven playing field against hospitals.Every year, providers protest the inequities of the current wage index system, and every year the feds turn a deaf ear. Will this year be different?The problem: Home health agencies have to rely on the hospital-based wage index, but are not eligible for the reclassification exceptions that hospitals are.Problems under that system include "the labor market distortions created by reclassification of hospitals in areas in which home health labor costs are not reclassified" and "the unpredictable year-to-year swings in wage index values that are often based on inaccurate or incomplete hospital cost reports," notes Nicole Fedeli-Turiano, legislative affairs director for Home Nursing Agency in Altoona, Pa., in her agency's comment letter on the 2013 home health prospective payment system proposed rule.The inequities in the system have "for many years created a competitive advantage for hospitals in recruiting and retaining increasingly scarce nurses and therapists," [...]